Coleridge as a critic

          Introduction

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a great poet, but he is also a great critic. He is one of the greatest of poet critics that England has never produced. He was a genius and when he inspired, and when the mood was upon him, he could create works of the highest order, but he was incapable of sustained and persistent labour.
Stray's remarks on literature and literary theory stated all over his prose works as, The Friend, Table Talks, Letters, Aids to Reflections, Confessions of an Inquiring Spirit, Animal Poteau and Simblline Leaves. But the bulk of his literary criticism, all that is most worthwhile in it is contained in his 1. Biographia Literaria and 2. Lectures on Shakespeare and other poets.
Activity of the 'poet's' mind, and a 'poem' is merely one of the forms of us expression a verbal expression of that activity, and poetic activity is basically an activity of the imagination. As David Daiches points out 'Poetry' for Coleridge is a wider category than that of 'poem', that is poetry is a kind of activity which can be engaged in by painters or philosophers or scientists and is not confined to those who employ metrical language, or even to those who employ language of any kind.

          Rustic Language

As regards the second statement of Wordsworth, Coleridge objects to the view that the best part of language is derived from the objects with which the rustic hourly communicates. First, communication with an object implies reflection on it, and the richness of vocabulary arises from such reflection, now the rural conditions of life do not require any reflection, hence the vocabulary of the rustics is poor. They can express only the barest facts of nature, and not the ideas and thoughts- Universal laws -which result from reflection on such facts whatever noble and poetic phrases, words and arrangement of words, the rustics use, are derived not from nature, but from repeated listening to The Bible and to the sermons of noble and inspired preachers. 

          Poetic Diction

Coming then to detailed consideration of Wordsworth's theory of poetic diction he takes up his statements, one by one; and demonstrate that his views are not justified. Wordsworth asserts that the language of poetry is, "a selection of the real language of men or the very language of men and that there was no essential difference between the language of prose and that of poetry", Coleridge, retorts that, 'every man's language'," varies according to the extent of his knowledge, the activity of his faculties and the depth or qiickness of his feelings. "Every man's language has, first its individual particularities, secondly, the properties common to the class to which he belongs, and thirdly, words and phrases of Universal use". "No two men of the same class or of different classes speak alike, although both use words and phrases common to them all, because in the one case their natures are different, and in the other their classes are different".
Wordsworth and Coleridge in their lyrical ballads discuss the following points: People are supernatural characters or romantics, imaginations and poetic truth and man's inner world and human interest. According to Coleridge there are two main points of poetry:
1. The power of exciting the sympathy of the reader by a faithful adherence to the truth of nature.
2. The power of giving the interest of novelty by the modifying colours of imagination.
According to the Coleridge there are two types of poetry 1. Nature poetry and 2.Supernatural poetry. He says that the subject of the poem should be chosen from the rustic and village life. According to Coleridge the language of poetry should be the language of real life. Coleridge agrees with Wordswords that in rustic life human soul can prosper fully but he believes that every man is not likely to include by country life. He accepts the principle of Aristotle that the poetry is essentially ideal. He says that the literal knowledge of an educated rustic person will provide a very limited vocabulary. Thus Coleridge in the end gives the statement that there should be difference between the language of prose and poetry.
At the end of his notes on Shakespeare, he has a passage, full of power and meaning, incidentally, referring to the same, thought: 'There are three powers'.
1. Wit which discovers partial likeness hidden in general diversity.
2. Subtlety which discovers the diversity, concealed in general apparent sameness.
3. Profundity which discovers an essential unity under all semblance of difference. Give a subtle man fancy and he is a deep wit, to a deep man imagination and he is a philosopher.
Thus, a 'legitimate' poem is one which the parts mutually supports and explain each other and harmonise with the known influences of metric arrangement. Therefore Coleridge says, " A poem of any length neither can be nor to be, all poetry size does not decide the quality. It doesn't determine prose or poem too."

           Conclusion

To conclude, we may say in his own words, he endeavored 'to establish the principles of writing rather than to furnish rules about how to pass judgement on what had been written by others'. Thus, Coleridge is a first English critic who based his literary criticism on philosophical principles.